PlayStation 2 just about to sell out

The UK's allocation of PlayStation 2s has almost gone - just not quite as fast as high street retailers expected.

A complete sell out was anticipated for the weekend, but as of 3pm BST this afternoon Dixons' PS2 pre-order hotline still claimed to have 100 units left to allocate.

Elsewhere was a different story. HMV's head of games, Martin Gibbs, said the chain had negligible numbers of pre-order forms left by Monday morning. "We've as good as sold out," he said.

Chris Ratcliff, publisher of the Game Guide, the independent retailer's bible and price guide, said all his customers had got rid of their allocation of the games machine. "As far as I know they've all been pre-ordered and reserved. None of the indies have any left."

Sony's PlayStation will be available on 24 November. The UK was only given in the region of 200,000 of the £299 machines to sell, and the retailers opened their pre-order business on Thursday 7 September. The average independent retailer was allocated between nine and 15 PS2s, and a regular Electronics Boutique outlet would have been given around 20-25 consoles.